BAND QUOTES:
“We don’t believe in Satanism at all. It frightens me to be quite honest. I’ve never really dealt with it or read up on it. It’s just a hook. That’s exactly what it is. The name Grim Reaper lends itself superbly to a logo, but all the other Satantic stuff on the album cover weren’t our idea. In fact, it took me almost two months to find out exactly what they meant.”
“Our producer was clever enough to find out before recording began, that I was over-pitching. Apparently I’d been singing that way for twelve years without realising. What he did was to de-pitch two guitars... making me sing in a lower pitch. Clever guy!”
“We’ve got something special to offer that’s bigger than image. We have The Note.”
- Steve Grimmett
Grim Reaper found their negligible niche in the pantheon of 80s metal when they won a local ‘battle of the bands’ competition in their hometown of Droitwich. Although they did quite well in America, the band never really ‘broke’ Britain, and there is probably a reason for this.
Despite demolishing some gas pumps whilst on tour, being hypnotised by a hippy in the audience with amulet, and once losing a doner kebab in their dressing room halfway through a show, Grim Reaper seemed to lack the vital ingredient of overblown self-important melodrama, clinging instead to the foolish notion that the music would speak for itself. Nevertheless, the band did their best to appear scary, even going so far as to invent a half-man, half-wolf character whose motto was: “Fear the Reaper: No one escapes his evil power”.
| Earnest-naivety-in-the-face-of-ridicule value: | 12 |
| General cliche-predictability index: | 47-582 |
| Prevalence of pseudo-occultist iconography: | 9 |
| Dedication to fulfilling the prophesy of Spinal Tap: | 8 |